15 Minutes

Every 15 minutes, someone dies from an alcohol related car crash. Or at least those were the statistics a few years back. I think now, the number is around every 32 minutes, which is way better, but we still have a long way to go…
Last week, my school participated in the “Every 15 Minutes” ceremony. This event is exclusively for juniors and seniors, and I remember thinking either Freshman or Sophomore year how excited I would be to watch participate in the activity. Each of our district’s high schools trade off who participates in the activity each year and it occurs every 2 years at our school.
Thursday
Thursday was the first day of the activity. Every 15 minutes, a bell would sound and someone would be taken from our classes. I remember hearing that Emily Myers was “taken” from band and I wondered how many of my friends would actually be taken as well. The grim reaper came into the classroom that the student was “taken” from, and their eulogy (prepared by their parents) was read to the class. The “living dead” would come back to attend the rest of the classes, but they could not communicate with others, and had to be ignored by the teachers. They had their faces painted white with black circles around their eyes and black lipstick with a T-shirt with the words “Every 15 Minutes” written on it. They didn’t have any of their stuff with them either. I remember being in the library during second period and laughing about it with my friends, because some of the people who were chosen we know would NEVER die in that sort of car accident. Then, during 3rd period, there was a dramatized version of an alcohol related car crash by some people at our school. The drunk driver was Nolan Sheldon and one of the passengers was Anna Dorey. There were firetrucks, police cars, and other emergency vehicles present to make it seem as real as possible. The car crash scene was pretty intense for some, but for others like me, I couldn’t relate. The rest of the day was spent with the “living dead” with nothing else.
Friday
Friday was the “memorial service” for those who had “died” yesterday. (Which was also limited to juniors and seniors) I think Friday was the most emotional day for half the school. We met in the gym during 2nd period for the service. During the assembly, we learned that afterschool on Thursday, those who participated in the activity were taken to a court house and then to a nearby hotel to spend the night. They were not to have contact with family members and their cell phones were taken away from them. Those who were part of the staged car crash were actually taken to the ER and the morgue. Nolan, the drunk driver, was actually taken to jail and had to spend the night in a jail cell. After the introductions, all the people who participated in the 15 minutes program walked out carrying yellow flowers and wearing black. Then, the main part of the assembly started. (my friend Lance actually video taped the assembly and put it on youtube) Callie spoke of her dad’s death after he was involved in a car accident (he was the one who was drinking). Her story touched me and I started to cry, but stopped shortly, thinking…. “OMG… I can’t cry at a time like this.” Mrs. Graves also told us of her experience being involved in a car crash, except she was the one who was hurt when a drunk driver crashed into her car. Media productions then put on a video of what happened with the whole entire car crash. Afterwards was the memorial videos and pictures to all the people who had “died” the day before. The video, although fictional (because none of the people had died) seemed so real and I started crying. After the video, the kids and parents (who were invited to the “service”) were asked to read the letters they had written. The kids were asked to write a letter to their parents as if they had died, and the parents were do to likewise. Nolan was given a separate task of writing a letter as if he had been jailed. The first letter started most of the people crying… it was sweet, with words of thanks to the parents. The parents in return wrote the most depressing, saddening letters. One of the sentences I remember clearly was “Now that you’re gone, we’ll never be able to see your shining blue eyes.” The parents and the kids hugged after they had read their letters–it was such a sweet moment. Letter after letter, I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky Daniel was when he got into his car accident (which wasn’t serious AT ALL–he came out of it with a SCRATCH on his forehead? after he and Kester hit a tree). It’s not just the drinking and the driving… I think it was just needing to grieve. Through all the funerals I went to, I’ve never cried at one. Even when my pets died, I really wasn’t too affected by it. Then, the assembly happened, and even though I knew that everything was fictionalized and nothing actually happened to these people, I cried…I really cried. After the assembly was over, I could feel that half our junior/senior population was crying. We went outside only to be greeted by insensitive freshmen and sophomores who stared at us in the eyes with wide-eyed amazement as we passed by them with eyes welled up with water. They looked at us as if we were from another planet. Apparently, after the assembly, the “living dead” were encouraged to go to the teacher’s lounge to talk to counselors because the whole experience was too emotionally unsettling. Emily Myers, one of the happiest, bubbliest people I know actually skipped the rest of the school day because of the emotional toll it took.
I talked to Hilliary afterwards, telling her “I think the last time I cried this hard at school was PREschool.” “Same here.” she told me. Having a sub in Spanish that day didn’t help, either. One by one, we walked in, and we could tell who had been crying. Some of the manliest guys were red-eyed walking into the classroom.
If I had to describe last week in one word, it would be

Intense